However, in today’s language, the word “pleb” has taken on further connotations of coarse and vulgar.

The term has since become common parlance in public schools, such as the prestigious Rugby School where Mr Mitchell was educated.

In this context, it is used to mean a pupil who does not come from the gentry.

It is rarely used as an insult in public life, although Gordon Ramsay once branded Sir Terence Conran a “pleb” adding he would “rather have food at my four-year-old daughter’s school” than his rival’s restaurant.